The Aurora's Edge

I get the basic principle of the game, it's basically a more advanced chess match. But anything beyond that is eluding me.

I've been able to struggle most of my way through some if Awakening but I've hit a point where I got stuck and put it down, and am hoping to pick it up after I'm willing to remove Pokemon from my system.

It might be worth noting that I don't generally play turn based strategy games.

I really don't know how to feel about this one. On one hand the story is really interesting and super depressing, both things I enjoy, on the other hand, the gameplay seemed to go out of its way to do nearly everything wrong. From a leveling system that makes no sense, to save points being in the exact wrong places and dungeons that lock you in with few recovery options and a bunch of generic RPG stuff that seemed tacked on with little benefit.

But the story, world building, characters and music was all so fantastic it almost makes trudging through the gameplay worth it.

Not to say there weren't redeeming qualities there, some of the dungeons had interesting ideas. The dream sequences where pretty cool. I actually liked the perspective changes, though some of the magic attacks controlled poorly in top down mode.

Did I mention the music was fantastic? Also Kaine, definitely Kaine.

But with Platinum working on the sequel I have high hopes. Hopefully it won't disappoint. Because that's really the main reason I tried this one.

I don't understand the justifications my friends come up with for continually doing this. I was playing Destiny with my friend and one of his friends and he mentioned that he almost finished paying off his pre-order for GOW4. When I asked him what he would do if that was a bad decision and it was a dud. He nonchalantly said he would trade it in. When I mentioned waiting for reviews, his freind, in a defensive, sort of offended tone stated reviews don't matter and you should decide for yourself weather you like it.

I mean, that's fine, I guess, but I think you should at least wait to see that the game isn't broken.

My friend also defended the AC game that launched a few years ago, stating that it was a new console and they didn't know how to work with it. One would wonder why they where willing to release the game and block reviews until after release. No, they knew exactly what they where doing.

That took far longer then it should have... great game though. Despite it being a decade old it still looks really good, if maybe a bit outdated. Things like missiles exploding and seeing Samus's face reflected in the visor where really nice touches.

Okay, so I'm seeing if I can't get a second opinion that's in no way connected to my personal life.

OK, so a little less then a month ago I was at a local restaurant with my family for my father's birthday. When I went up to order the young lady who took it made note that she saw me there often, (which is true) and asked for my name. (She also gave me hers but I was kind of panicking at this point and I can't actually remember it.) Now, my family is convinced that she was flirting with me.

Based on my expierience being on both sides of customer service, I would not consider this normal practice, but my question to you is: at the very least, is that a reasonable assumption? My gut tells me that it's not, and even if it is a reasonable assumption I wouldn't know how to handle the situation, as it just feels fundamentally wrong to put somebody in that situation while at work.

Anyway, I know that's a weird question to ask here, but it's been bugging me for weeks and I thought putting it here might allow me to vent it out and also get a second opinion. Feel free to move right along if you have nothing to say.